Development of Experience-Dependent Responses to Voice Pitch in Newborns and Infants

语调作为音调的变化，在交流中可以承载重要的信息。在美国英语等非声调语言中，语调的不同可以将陈述转化为疑问句，而在普通话等声调语言中，语调可以改变每个口语单词的意思。尽管它显然很重要，但我们仍然不清楚感知音调差异的能力是否以及如何在早期发育过程中通过学习获得的。为了解决这个重要的问题，俄亥俄大学的郑福成博士建议在美国和台湾的两个婴儿中心进行一个项目，首先调查在有声调(台湾)和无调(美国)语言环境中出生的新生儿对语调的感知能力是否存在差异，然后在3个月后进行跟踪，评估暴露在不同语言环境中是否会导致这种能力的变化。程博士将使用非侵入性电生理技术来测量大脑皮质下和皮质结构中的活动如何在发育的每一个时间点随着声音音调的变化而变化。通过这项具有技术挑战性的研究，程博士希望回答这样一个问题：辨别语调的能力是后天获得的还是与生俱来的，以及婴儿的大脑对早期生活语言环境的反应是如何可塑性的。这项拟议的研究可能会为语言发育障碍的诊断和可能的补救带来新的方法。特别是，这项研究可能对自闭症等社交/交往障碍的早期发现和识别有意义。此外，通过美台合作，PI为拥有丰富国际经验的美国研究生创造了难得的机会。这些经历有望拓宽他们对不同文化背景下的研究的理解，帮助学生发展与中国研究人员的个人关系，并为他们未来发起自己的国际合作活动奠定基础。这些经验还将为学生提供教学和培训机会，以应对在全球舞台上开展研究的挑战和好处。最后，程博士将通过提供数据来参与大数据工作，以支持NSF的其他协调努力，这些努力的目标是在STEM相关课程的教学中利用真实数据，并使那些原本无法获得此类数据的人能够参与发现科学。该项目由NSF国际与综合活动办公室国际科学与工程科共同资助

Intonation as a change in voice pitch can carry important information in communication. In non-tonal languages such as American English, differences in intonation can change a statement into a question while in tonal languages such as Mandarin Chinese, intonations can change the meaning of every single spoken word. Despite its apparent importance, it remains unclear whether and how the ability to perceive tonal difference is acquired through learning during early development. To address this important question, Dr. Fuh-Cherng Jeng of University of Ohio proposes a project to be conducted at two infant centers, one in the United State and one in Taiwan, to first investigate whether newborn babies born to a tonal (Taiwan) and atonal (US) language environments differ in their ability to perceive intonation and to then follow up 3 months later to assess whether the exposure to different language environment lead to changes in this ability. Dr. Jeng will employ non-invasive electrophysiological techniques to measure how brain activity in subcortical and cortical structures changes in response to voice pitch at each point of the development. Through this technically challenging study, Dr. Jeng expects to answer the question whether the ability to detect intonation is learned or innate and how plastic are the infant brains in response to exposure to early life language environment. The proposed study could lead to new approaches for diagnosis and possible remediation of developmental disorders of language. In particular, this research may have implications for the early detection and identification of social/communicative disorders such as autism. Furthermore, through the US-Taiwan collaboration, the PI creates exceptional opportunities for US graduate students with extensive international experience. These experiences are expected to broaden their understanding of research in a different cultural context, help students develop personal relations with Chinese researchers, and lay the foundation for initiating their own future international collaboration activity. Such experiences will also provide teaching and training opportunities for the students to deal with challenges and benefits of conducting research on a global stage. Finally, Dr. Jeng will participate in the big data effort by making the data available to support other coordinated NSF efforts that aim to make use of real data in the teaching of STEM related courses and to enable participation in discovery science by those who would otherwise have no access to such data.This project is co-funded by the International Science and Engineering Section of the NSF Office of International and Integrative Activities